


Coming Off the Line

by paradisecity



Category: Hawaii (TV)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-09-17
Updated: 2004-09-17
Packaged: 2018-01-10 14:33:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1160820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paradisecity/pseuds/paradisecity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Linh knows something Chris and Danny don't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coming Off the Line

**give it up**  
She should've seen it coming. She really should have.  
  
She didn't.  
  
She can see it easily now, just like she can see the ocean stretching out for endless miles on a bright, clear day. It's too late to do her any good, though.  
  
  
 **is it destiny**  
Usually when retirement comes, no one's nearly as happy to see the long-awaited day arrive as the retiree. de los Reyes was the notable exception. He was relieved to have finally put in his twenty-five, an accomplishment that seemed less and less likely with every year that passed, especially after he had to take Chris under his wing. Chris, for all his (purported) goodwill, couldn't wait to get out from under his old-fashioned, conventional partner and be on his own. Most ecstatic of all, however, was the captain. The only person who can bitch more than someone who knows better is someone who _doesn't_ know better, he used to say to Kaleo. He was tired of getting it from both sides and had been looking forward to the day he'd only have to get it from his wife. There was something inherently wrong with that, he'd pointed out to Chris on several occasions, but Chris would just grin and say, "Don't let her hear you say that," and then, "You love her," and the captain would smile and shoo him out the door and it would start all over again in the morning. No, no one was nearly as happy as the captain.  
  
Chris's second partner lasted two days, his third a week, his fourth nearly a month before he faxed his resignation letter from his lawyer's office in New York and started talking about a lawsuit. After that debacle, the captain let Chris sit in on the interviews, against his better judgment and rightly so. Chris flat out rejected candidate after candidate and after their ninth interview, the captain was threatening to ask de los Reyes about coming out of retirement. There were only two people left after Danny and before de los Reyes and the entire precinct heaved a collective sigh of relief when Kaleo heard Chris saying, "That one. I want that one," like he was buying a shiny new toy off a store shelf.  
  
The first time she saw Danny pull up to the station, she thought maybe Chris wasn't so far off.  
  
  
 **keepin' it a mystery**  
Danny was a little out of sorts in the beginning, as most mainlanders are. He was also sullen and moody, just as likely to snap at you as he was laugh with you. When he was a jerk, he was a real jerk; but when he was sweet, he could melt you where you stood. There was something about a girl he left behind in Miami, she knew, so she gave him the benefit of the doubt and offered to show him around. "Only if you let me buy you dinner," he'd said, and when he sent that smoky grin her way, she knew she was in trouble.  
  
So they went out once, and then again, and when he dropped her off he asked, "When you are gonna invite me in?" and she said, "I can't, we work together," and he said, "You don't even _know_ how well we can work together." It was a line, and a bad one at that, but it was Danny and she knew she was going to give in because it had never really occurred to her not to. So she did, and it was really good, and he kissed her like he meant it.  
  
When she woke up in the morning, he was gone. That should've been her first clue.  
  
  
 **gun it comin' off the line**  
Right from the start, Chris and Danny seemed like they'd never been anything but each other's partner. They quibbled, they competed, they busted on each other, and they had fun doing it. Most importantly, though, they did their jobs and they did them far better than anyone had expected them to. It wasn't long before the complaints started to trickle in, but they were arresting people the captain never thought they could've gotten -- he'd just wanted to break Danny in hard, make sure he could do the job. Given the results they were bringing in, he was willing to let a couple civilian complaints slide.  
  
It wasn't long before Chris and Danny started to eclipse even Harrison. They were young, attractive, bucking the system, and getting away with it. They had a certain flair and panache unmatched by any other cop on the island. It was why Kaleo loved to watch them do good cop/bad cop even if, he said, it wasn't always so clear which one of them was the good cop.  
  
With Danny, Chris had finally become the kind of cop he'd always wanted to be. He was happier than she'd ever seen him before and when she looked hard enough, she thought she saw a look on Danny's face that might've passed for happiness.  
  
It never occurred to her that she only saw it when Chris was around.  
  
  
 **oh, my little pretty one**  
John was a nice guy and a good cop, even if he'd been stupid enough to move to an island when he couldn't even swim. But he was kind and he was funny and she didn't have to worry about whether or not he'd bite her head off if she offered him a cup of coffee or if he'd ignore when she said good morning like he hadn't just come inside her the night before. And he paid attention to her, noticed things, and it wasn't until he started doing it that she realized how little Danny had been doing of the same. John talked to her and he flirted with her and he gave her a chance on his cases. Even if he was only doing it in the hopes that she'd sleep with him, it was still more than Danny was doing, and he was getting it every night for free.  
  
So when John stopped her in the locker room and asked if he could give her a lift, she said yes. "You've been good to me, so helpful," he said. "Let me buy you dinner. It's the least I can do." So she agreed and he did and over a bottle of wine, she realized that at least John knew a woman could be stolen and he'd try, if only for the sake of his pride, not to let it happen. It probably never occurred to Danny that anyone else might want her. That was the worst part of all.  
  
That's why, when he asked if she wanted dessert, she said she had to get home and when he signaled to take her exit she clarified, "I never said my home." And that's why, even though the music was a cheesy touch and John was far prouder of his attributes than he had any reason to be, she slid into the tub and settled astride him, her skin slippery against his. That's why, when his phone rang, she leaned in closer and whispered, "Leave it," and he bucked up hard beneath her and she came.  
  
When half the station came busting through the door and Danny saw her, the first thing he did wasn't to yell or swear or storm out or even stare. No, the first thing he did was look at Chris.  
  
And that was when she knew.  
  
  
 **never gonna stop**  
After that, it was so easy to see she was surprised she was the only who did. It was in the way Chris said his name and Danny, Danny who never listened to anyone, who spent most of his time inside his own head, who didn't care about anyone else nearly as much as himself and didn't care who knew it, Danny would listen. In a room full of people, in a quiet office when he busy doing something else, in the middle of an argument, Danny always listened. When she was naked and pressed warmly against him as he slid down into sleep, whispering in his ear, she couldn't shake him. But he'd hear Chris's voice through the pain and the haze of a hangover and snap right to attention.  
  
It was in the way they talked, how they developed this conversational shorthand even though they hadn't been together long and they could turn thirty second of, "Did you--" "Yeah, with the--" "And the--" "No, you have--" "Right, do we need--" "Yeah, I got--" "Okay." into an actual, meaningful conversation that only they understood. And they wanted it that way.  
  
It was in the way she'd said, "Danny, I just don't need this kind of drama in my life," and he'd said, "Okay," just like that. He didn't want to know why or when or for how long, didn't need to get back at her for humiliating him at work in front of other men in the worst way possible. He acted like he didn't care and, she quickly realized, it was probably because he didn't.  
  
It was in the way he let Chris worry about him, "Hungover _again_ , Danny?" he'd said, and then, "Maybe you should see someone," and Danny just nodded and said, "Yeah." There was none of the dark rage in his eyes like there had been when she'd suggested it, the kind of loose cannon emotion that made her wonder if maybe she knew more about why he left Miami than she'd first thought. It was in the way Chris had started going out with him after work and on the weekends to keep an eye on him, how they still talked about women all the time but they weren't talking about women they'd been with, they were talking about women they'd wanted to be with. It was in the way she knew, through the grapevine, that they always left the bars and clubs alone.  
  
But mostly, it was in the way she realized that Danny always and only looked happy when he was with Chris.  
  
  
 **give me some time**  
She couldn't then, but she can see it now, as easily as she can see the ocean stretch away for miles on a clear day. She knows now that Danny had one foot out the door from the moment she met him, and that there's no way she could have guessed that. She's certain Chris doesn't know, and she doesn't think Danny himself even knows. But he will soon; they both will. It's a small island and there aren't that many places to run from something. Or someone.  
  
She just hopes he doesn't wait to see it until it's too late to do him any good.


End file.
